infestør

i always saw inönü's nautrality stance as a great diplomatic achievement. what are your thought as how he managed keep turkey out of the war?

Tulun

Was there great pressure on him to enter the war? And on which side? i read it in Walter Schellenberg's memoirs once that in 1942-43 some Turkic and Caucasian commando groups were trained in Turkey with German-Turkish secret service cooperation, but then the Soviets got to know about it and they had to stop it. I wonder is it true or is there any further info on it?

Vezir

At 1914 Ottoman Empire joined the WW1 because of ambitious goals of Enver Pasha which could never become true. He wanted to take all Central Asia from Russia and control the other Turkic states under Ottoman Empire. Enver Pasha deeply believed that germans would win the war and he thought joining world war with Germans would bring him opportunity to make his goals real. Because of Enver Pasha's ambitious dreams turkish people joined this war and had a disastrous times.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk knew that new big war would come out soon and his policy was to keep Turkey out from possible world war. Ataturk learned a very good lesson from WW1 that joining wars because of ambitious empty dreams are very dangerous and risky. Ataturk died at 1938 and after Ataturk died Ismet Inönü became the most powerful person in Turkey.

As Ataturk predicted WW2 started and Ismet Inönü handled the WW2 very skillfully. Ismet İnönü was Ataturk's close friend and he followed the policy which Ataturk would follow if he was alive.

Ismet Inönü, skillfully resisted all of the pressures from the other countries and kept Turkey out of the war. He singed a friendship treaty with both Nazi Germany and Great Britian. Also at 1941 Turkey became one of the biggest trade partner of Nazi Germany. By 1944 Turkey canceled all of the trade agreements with Nazi Germany because of the high pressure of USSR and G.Britian.

After the battle of stalingrad, Hitler wanted Turkey to believe that he will going to win this war and he tried to gain Turkey by showing how strong german military is. He invited turkish officers to eastern front but unfortunately German Army got crushing defeat at battle of kursk and Hitler's plan to bring Turkey to war failed.

At 1943, Churchill came to Turkey and meet with Ismet Inönü to open second front from Balkans. Ismet Inonü said Turkey can join the war with allies but allies should give Turkey war preparation money and weapons. Ismet Inönü listed a huge list and half of that list was a lie. He demanded things from allies which they could not accept. So Churchill failed to bring Turkey in war.

At August 1944, Soviet soldiers entered Bulgaria and Bulgaria withdraw from Axis alliance. At that time Turkey cut all of the diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany and Japan and at february 1945 Turkey declared war on Nazi Germany and Japan to become one of the founder members of the United Nations.

Vezir

If Turkey joined the war with Nazi Germany then WW2 would at least end in 1946-47. Turkey was a weak-state at those years but Turkey had a great strategic position. German Armies could invade middle east from Turkey and also they could invade caucasusia from south and that could change the course of war.

infestør

i think also 3. reich's views on turkey made it possible.
afaik, hitler thought turkey would be an ally at some point (thinking back about ww1). even if not, 3. reich was already in balkans and when they reach baku (after a glorious defeat of ussr) turkey would be surrounded by drittes reich, so she would anyway have no options. a fight against 3.reich would be futile as turkey was devastated after the turkish independence war. i don't know how true this was, though. nevertheless still most credit should go to mr. inönü.

Vezir

I agree, Turkey had friendship treaty with both Nazi Germany and G.Britain and in the end when Nazi Germany fell from power and Turkey declared war on them. If Hitler defeated USSR and conquered caucasus then Turkey would have border with Germans from eastern. After caucasus Germans would go down to Middle East from Iran so Turkey would get surrounded from all fronts and they would declare war on G.Britain and join the war with Germans.

the Chief

Neutrality only works if you have forces strong enough to guarantee it or if it is in the interest of both sides to leave you neutral ie: Switzerland. I think it was in Turkey's best interest to stay out of the war and their leaders did what was necessary to accomplish that end.

macro

Turks already suffered big losses in WW1. almost all young men got killed in WW1. They believed every war was a crime unless it was self-preservation. They didn't want to loose valuable youth but wanted to build up the country. I think they handled it well and they can see the result of it today. Average age is 28 in Turkey. Youngest population in Europe. Vibrant economy and population.

betgo

Yeh, I would imagine that after the casualties and destruction of the Turkish Empire in WWI, they weren't eager to get involved in another one. A lot of countries only got involved in WWII reluctantly or when invaded.

infestør

do you know the contents of that list (if ever declassified)?

-give us 100 unicorns so we can gloriously fly over the axis!
-imma check it with my head of the treasury